An astounding treasure trove, a cornucopia of monologues offering a trenchant, compassionate vision of black life in all its startling diversity and universality. Invaluable for actors.

—Douglas Turner Ward

Heinemann is proud to be publishing, for the first time, the complete text of Gus Edwards' remarkable Lifetimes on the Streets, in a volume with another collection of monologues entitled Reaching for the Dream. Together, these two sets of monologues are a vital resource for actors and actresses looking for honest, vibrant material. The characters in Lifetimes on the Streets range from a woman on her way to her hairdresser who enters into a strange relationship with a painter who invites her to have a cup of tea with him, to the Common Man, an old man carrying a bag who warns that Harlem is entering a new ice age, to a businessman who, on the death of a homosexual friend, wanders into a porn movie and is forced to confront his own discomfort and lack of confidence.

The rest of this volume is a collection of monologues for men and women, ranging in age from 15 to 50. We meet Kiana, 15, who wonders why boys are such jerks, Jaims, 16, who wants to know why it's so hard to talk to girls, Harold, 30, who has four wives and is about to cop an insanity plea, Lisata, in her 20s, who encounters a man with strange eyes on the subway, and a host of other people making their way as best they can in this last part of the 20th century.